Anger is a very powerful and fleeting emotion. However, anger that is channelised into a more sinister form—hatred is an all-consuming and enduring sentiment. Very few possess what it takes to be perennially saddled with this lingering feeling of vitriol. The folks at the lie and hate-mongering factory, The Wire, are few of those who have mastered the proficiency of preserving this hatred and transferring it along in their circles without any attenuation. It is an online congregation of hate-mongers where they firehose the platform with their animosity against the Modi government.
Recently, ‘The Wire’ published an article titled ‘Big Brother’s Patriarchal Authoritarianism’ which vilified the democratically elected central government as an authoritarian regime with patriarchal impulses. The article spuriously drew a parallel between the Communist regime in China’s despotic rule to the parliamentary rule in India citing the arrests of female anarchists such as Safoora Zargar, Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, Gulfisha Fatima and others for inciting unrest in the country on the pretext of carrying out “peaceful protest” against the CAA.
The author of the article published on The Wire quotes the book-“Betraying Big Brother” which is based on the arrest of five women by the Chinese government in March 2015 to equate it with the recent arrest of women protesters in India in connection with the violent demonstrations that rocked several parts of the country, especially the national capital and culminated into full-blown communal riots in the northeast Delhi. The Wire article cautions that just like the arrest of Chinese women, apparently in a bid to crush the fledgeling Feminist movement, ended up touching off wider protests, similarly, the incarceration of women anti-CAA offenders might spark off widespread anarchy across the country.
This romanticism with anarchy has become a cornerstone of liberal narrative against the Modi government. Decisions take by the Modi government are opposed on the flimsiest of grounds so that hostility against the centre remains ignited. The protesters are rallied on the street to amplify the visibility of their demonstrations while painting the government as cruel and oppressive.
Any corrective action taken against the leftist hoodlums by the central government or the police machinery is stridently opposed, initially by tackling it with legal recourse through a battery of bushy-tailed advocates who feel no compunction in wasting the precious time of judiciary. When all the judicial remedies at their disposal are exhausted, the leftists indulge in psychological warfare, writing elaborate opinion columns, citing obscure books and equating fundamentally distinct events to galvanise a groundswell of opposition against the disciplinary action taken against the leftist delinquents.
After multiple refusal from various courts in India, including the Supreme Court, to grant the anarchist protesters any respite by the form of allowing them bail, the leftists organisations have swung into action to activate their psychological battle with a two-pronged strategy—generating sympathy wave for the protesters lodged in jail by deviously humanising them while continuing their anti-Modi bashing unabated.
A few days back, an article published on ‘The Wire’ invoked the prized notion of ‘motherhood’ hailed by Indians to make a case for Safoora Zargar’s release while raining criticism on the Indian society and political class for allowing the incarceration of a pregnant woman. Criminality or innocence of Safoora Zargar, who is accused of inciting mob on Jafrabad Metro Station in Delhi that led to Delhi riots, was of no consequence for the author of the article. All she cared about was slamming the government for imprisoning a pregnant lady, regardless of her culpability.
The article about the ‘Patriarchal Authoritarianism’ is part the psychological warfare that the left has unleashed against the Modi government. The left seems to have too many aces in the hole that they pull out periodically to mount their attack against PM Modi. “Fascism”, “Authoritarianism”, “Despotism”, “Patriarchy”, “Motherhood”, “Communalism” are such aces that the liberals draw out to malign their nemesis–PM Modi. In the above article too, the author has unscrupulously compared two fundamentally different countries–China and India, to allege that they are similar in exercising “Patriarchal Authoritarianism”.
Like in the case of invoking motherhood of Safoora Zargar to shield her from the consequences of indulging in patently criminal activities, the author in this article calls to attention the imaginary “Patriarchal Authoritarianism” by the government to plead innocence of the women arrested by the police in inciting protests across the country. Perhaps, according to the author’s liberal lexicon, when a democracy with an independent judiciary acts against women perpetrators, it suddenly transmogrifies into “Patriarchal Authoritarianism”.
One of the reasons why the liberalism in India is on the wane and is scoffed at by the majority of the country is because of its inherently contradictory set of beliefs that do not jibe with each other. On one hand, the liberals in India profess that the men and women should be equally treated while on the other hand, they indiscriminately pull out cards such as “patriarchy”, “anti-feminist” and “misogynists” to besmirch those try to uphold equality in the society. The principle of gender equality states that there should not be differential treatment meted out based on one’s gender. Then why are the liberals accusing the government of “Patriarchal Authoritarianism” when the police are arresting female offenders who ginned up violent protests?
The Wire has, undoubtedly, mastered this act of double-dealing. The author of the article in The Wire refers to the arrest of anti-CAA riots protesters–Safoora Zargar, Pinjra Tod protesters-Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, Gulfisha Fatima and others a result of the centre’s patriarchal authoritarianism. One of the most inconspicuously treacherous pursuits the folks at The Wire and similar organisations undertake is to extenuate the alleged crimes committed by painting these anarchists as victims while characterising the government which acts against these offenders as oppressive. There’s damning evidence in possession of Delhi Police in the form of Whatsapp chats and video footage that conclusively prove that the Delhi riots convulsed the national capital in February this year were a part of a deep-rooted, well-planned conspiracy to throw the national capital into a state of anarchy.
Espousing “selectivity” is another such trait endemic to liberal intelligentsia. As the concept of “Patriarchal Authoritarianism” dictated the author to only include select incidents where the government appears to have targeted the women protesters, leaving out the punitive actions undertaken by the government against Shaheen Bagh protest co-organiser Sharjeel Imam, who had launched a diatribe against the territorial integrity of India and urged Muslims to cut off Assam from the rest of country, and others such Akhil Gogoi, Bittu Sonowal, Manas Konwar, Dhairjya Konwar—who are all charged under UAPA for stoking unrest under the garb of leading anti-CAA protests. The Modi government has veritably upholded gender-equality in punishing the miscreants exhibiting seditious proclivities.
Besides, the Modi government has also worked furiously in empowering women and reducing gender disparity. In 2015, the Modi government launched “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” scheme to create awareness among the masses about the importance of educating a girl child. A year later, it launched Mahila-e-Haat, a bilingual online marketing platform to help aspiring women entrepreneurs, self-help groups, and NGOs to display their products and services. ‘Mahila Shakti Kendra’ was instituted in 2017 to equip rural women with opportunities for skill development, digital literacy, health and nutrition. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana empowered deprived women by providing them with clean fuel. This list isn’t remotely comprehensive. There are other schemes, policies and measures adopted by the government aimed at women empowerment.
However, these facts are conveniently ignored by the author lest they would disembowel his rickety assertion that the Modi government displayed “Patriarchal Authoritarianism” by subjugating women protesters engaging in inciting violence. For far too long, The Wire and its writers have shown blithe disregard for the facts and have brazenly defended the wrongdoers despite overwhelming evidence suggesting their culpability. They have not let reality impede their attempts to perpetuate propaganda. When the sole aim of their existence is to vilify the Modi government, facts are too inconsequential a thing to curb their shenanigans.
